Theory is sound. But getting the first frame out of a 10 frame box is hard enough. I'm not sure if the 11 frame setup would be easier or more difficult. Mike would be your best info on this one. Bailey

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most often i find my greatest source of stress to be OPS ( other peoples stupidity )

It is better to keep ones mouth shut and be thought of as a fool than to open ones mouth and in so doing remove all doubt.

Yes those were my thoughts to. Plus I'll be doing 8 frame supers so I don't know if you can put 9 narrow in an 8 regular super or not. Right now I think I need to focus on the basics and do trials later.

I run my frames thru a tablesaw set at 1 1/4". I use a sharpie and draw a vee toward the uncut side and keep them in that direction so spacing is maintained. I am using 4.9mm foundation and just as Mr. Bush says it helps the bees draw smaller cells and my observation is the frames are drawn better quality. The 11 frames when drawn are indeed tight and I think follower boards are in my future running 10.

I made some narrow frames and have regretted that decision ever since. Swapping the narrow frames of comb from dead outs to other hives that aren't narrow frame is a pain, doing splits creates a need for more narrow frames. If I only had a few hives it wouldn't be such a big deal but I ended up cutting the comb out of mine and putting it into regular frames. The idea is novel and I wouldn't mind entertaining it but with more than 25 hive one has to go all narrow or don't.

I have no problem mixing wide and narrow drawn frames. You just have to hand space like I do normally on supers anyway. In the brood nest, you just have to be aware of working bee space so the emerging brood can get out and the bees can work. The main reason I shave them in the first place is because the bees draw better sc comb for me. It is just one of the million ways of doing things. If it works and doesn't hurt the bees, it is not wrong.

It's always surprising in life when you realize that something causes the opposite results that you expected. Tighter spacing makes frames easier to get out as they are flatter and not as uneven. Looser spacing makes them harder to get out as they are uneven with honey protruding which then catches bees and rolls them.

"...if the space is insufficient, the bees shorten the cells on the side of one comb, thus rendering that side useless; and if placed more than the usual width, it requires a greater amount of bees to cover the brood, as also to raise the temperature to the proper degree for building comb, Second, when the combs are too widely spaced, the bees while refilling them with stores, lengthen the cells and thus make the comb thick and irregular--the application of the knife is then the only remedy to reduce them to proper thickness."--J.S. Harbison, The bee-keeper's directory pg 32

I agree with Michael about the flatter combs. I have spaced my jumbo frames at 33mm and end up with flat combs. My deeps spaced at the standard 35mm eventually start growing honey humps on them and can become a mess. The poor design of the Hoffman end bars just exacerbates the problem over time as propolis builds up on them and the spacing grows. However I don’t bother with retrofitting deeps or medium brood frames down to 32mm; just more work than I want to do.